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Arch Neurol. 2000;57:641-642.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

IN THIS issue of the ARCHIVES, Manschot and coauthors¹ describe 3 families with polyneuropathy associated with monoclonal gammopathy and anti–myelin-associated glycoprotein (anti-MAG) antibodies. The patients would have been assumed to have hereditary neuropathy if it were not for the IgM monoclonal gammopathies. The distinction is important because immune-mediated neuropathies are responsive to drug therapy, whereas hereditary neuropathies are not, and hereditary neuropathies can be passed on to future generations. Other than that, the article raises important issues regarding the diagnosis of hereditary and demyelinating neuropathies, the significance of monoclonal gammopathies and autoantibodies, and the genetics of lymphoproliferative and autoimmune diseases.

In practice, patients are presumed to have hereditary neuropathy if other family members are affected, if they have a diagnostic DNA test, or, occasionally, if they have a characteristic phenotype. The condition is probably overdiagnosed, and in some instances justified merely by a distant family member with high arches or . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLE

Three Families With Polyneuropathy Associated With Monoclonal Gammopathy
Sanne M. Manschot, Nicolette C. Notermans, Leonard H. van den Berg, Jan J. G. M. Verschuuren, and Henk M. Lokhorst
Arch Neurol. 2000;57(5):740-742.
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